I am a great granddaughter of South Dakota Germans from Russia,
who were one of many ethnic groups that took advantage of the Homestead
Act offering settlers 160 acres of free land on the Great Plains.
I have always hungered for knowledge, the specifics, of their everyday
lives.

If you also are an American history buff and long for a look in
the rearview mirror of your early predecessors, you can thank Steven
R. Kinsella for researching and writing 900 Miles from Nowhere:
Voices from the Homestead Frontier.

Kinsella, a South Dakota son now residing in St. Paul, Minnesota,
is a great-grandson of North Dakota homesteaders. His career includes
past press secretary to U.S. Senator Tom Daschle, and author of
books and articles on the outdoors. Spurred by his fascination of
abandoned farm houses on his drives through the Great Plains, his
book brings life to the past homeowners’ hardships and successes
through letters, diary entries and photographs which settlers documented
from 1860-1910.

The author’s research road tripped him to the Great Plains
historical societies, state archives and libraries in the states
of Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana, Minnesota,
North Dakota and Wyoming. The letters, diaries and photographs (most
never before published) include the detailed torments of life on
the prairie: tornadoes, blizzards, drought, high winds, fires, blistering
heat, grasshopper plagues, isolation and loneliness, sickness and
dieing, hunger, lack of proper clothing, poorly built homes, and
inadequate farm equipment. Some of the letters are heart wrenching
when describing the many adversities but many are also uplifting
when revealing the camaraderie, hunting trips, bountiful crops,
joy of family, sense of community, tenacity and positive attitudes
of better times to come. Kinsella does a great job of interspersing
letters of sad and happy, positive and negative, but yet keeping
them topic organized in the book’s eleven chapters. Author
researched insightful narratives precede each carefully selected
entry. Listed in the back are the sources and notes of all letters,
diaries, photographs and research.

I read with special interest the lives of the women and how they
coped with childbirth and sick children with few doctors and medicines
available. The women came from many backgrounds. Some ventured from
eastern United States homes of comfort, with a husband for a thirst
of adventure and land development sales. A few admirable women came
on their own to stake claims. Some women came reluctantly following
a husbands’ dream of prosperity. Kinsella offers the following
excerpt: In the essay “Between Earth and Sky,” Debra
Marquart tells the story of her German Russian ancestors arriving
on the North Dakota prairie in 1885. While her great-grandfather
saw untold economic opportunities before him, her great-grandmother
fell to her knees and cried out, “Das ist der Himmel auf Erde!”
which translated roughly means, “It’s all earth and
sky!” Her reaction was common.

Another woman, Vera Wintrode, a young bride, wrote a letter describing
her new found life on the prairie and her loneliness. She signed
the letter, Mrs. Frank Wintrode, Cottonwood, South Dakota –
900 miles from nowhere. Thus, the title of the book.

Tears came to my eyes for the hardships my ancestors endured with
feeling unwanted and their lack of language skills when I read this
in a letter written by a Leipzig, North Dakota woman: “You
get so sick of seeing Russians and hearing them spiel Dutch. You
ask them anything and its always “ich nicht fur stehe[verstehe]”
and they shrug their shoulders and look idiotic. Sometimes you fool
them and try to ramble off a little Dutch and then they can’t
do enough for you. Ah! We don’t live in the US any more for
this is “Little Russia.”

In Kinsella’s epilogue, he describes a wintry day drive on
the Great Plains which landed him in the ditch and the ensuing neighborliness
that put him back on the road. I felt his turmoil having landed
in a ditch a time or two. The weather can change quickly and is
never to be taken for granted. Present day inhabitants, like their
ancestors, are tough, hang on tight and stick together knowing the
prairie is unrelenting, never to be trusted and never to change.

I encourage the reading of 900 Miles from Nowhere: Voices from
the Homestead Frontier. It is a fascinating study of the early
settlers and the pictures exceptionally telling. I envision this
book being extolled by American History teachers for its period
thoroughness and ease of read. Kinsella should be proud of his book.
It took him four years and it was time well spent.

Permission
to use any images from the GRHC website may be requested
by contacting Michael
M. Miller